Employment-Intensive Investment in Lebanon

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08 February 2017

Current EIIP Involvement

Lebanon is a new country for EIIP. Combined with internal political instability, the recent Syrian crisis has had its negative repercussions on the Lebanese economy and the labour market, both for Syrian refuges and the Lebanese people. Activities started in 2016 with the development of a project to create short- to mid-term employment opportunities for Lebanese host community members and Syrian refugees through infrastructure works. At the centre of this project, which was approved by the German Development Bank (KfW) in December 2016, are labour-intensive infrastructure rehabilitation and improvement measures such as rural road rehabilitation, water catchment cisterns and terracing. Project implementation started in January 2017 in cooperation with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) via the Lebanon Host Communities Support Programme (LHSP) in the most vulnerable municipalities of Bekaa, North and Mount Lebanon that host most of the deprived Lebanese and refugees. The infrastructure measures will be complemented by trainings on employment intensive methods for contractors and capacity building for public institutions. Especially the Ministry of Labour will be supported in order to promote a system for speedy and transparent issuance of work permits to Syrian refugees in Lebanon, allowing them to legally and formally take up employment. The project will run for two and a half years.

Historical Information

Prior to the above project, ILO collaborated with the World Bank in 2016 to assess the immediate direct, indirect and induced impacts of investments in the road sector on employment in Lebanon. A team of consultants collected and analysed employment-related data and prepared a report for ILO which assessed the employment impacts of roads sector investments in Lebanon (Employment Impact Assessment or EmpIA).

EIIP also contributed to two national workshops in 2015 and 2016 to share global experiences on employment intensive investment schemes with international and local NGOs involved in cash-for-work schemes in Lebanon and strengthen their capacity to improve the quality and impact of such programmes.